Understanding Now I assert and will prove that Preaching which is the Practic is a Work of the Imagination And accordingly as it is difficult to join in the same Brain a good Understanding with a great Imagination so it cannot well be that a Man should at the same time be a great School-Divine and a famous Preacher And that School-Divinity is a Work of the Understanding we have elsewhere already proved shewing the Inconsistence between that and the Latin Tongue therefore there is no need to prove it again Only I would have it understood that the good Graces by means of which good Preachers draw the People after them and hold them Charm'd and Ravish'd are all but a Work of an Excellent Imagination and in part of a happy Memory And to the end I may better explain my self and touch it as it were with my Finger it must first be supposed that a Man is a Rational Creature sociable and politic and to the end his good Natural Parts might be improved by Art the Antient Philosophers found out Logic to teach him how he was to Reason by what Rules and Precepts how to define the Nature of Things distinguish divide infer judge and chuse without which Acts it is impossible for any Artist to proceed And to the end he should be Sociable and Politic it was but reason he should speak and make known to others what he conceived in his mind But lest he should deliver them without Order or Rule they have invented another Art call'd Rhetoric which with its Rules and Precepts embelishes his Discourse with fine Words and elegant Phrases with Affections and Colours that are moving In like manner as Logic teaches a Man to Discourse and Reason not only in one Science but in All without distinction so Rhetoric instructs how to speak in Divinity Physic Law the Art-Military and all other Sciences and Modes of Conversation among Men. So that if we would feign to our selves a perfect Logician or compleat Orator they cannot pass for such unless they are knowing in all Sciences because they are all within their Province and in each of them without distinction he may Exercise his Art 'T is not so in Physic Natural and Moral Philosophy Metaphisics Astronomy and the rest that are all limited in the Matter they treat of which made Cicero say Wherever the Orator sets Foot it is his own Ground And in another place That in a compleat Orator all the Philosophers knowledge was to be found For which cause the same Cicero affirmed that there was no Artist found with such difficulty as a perfect Orator which he might have said with more Reason had he known the Repugnance there is in Uniting all the Sciences in one particular Art Antiently the Men of Law held the name and office of Orators because to make a compleat Advocate no less is required than the Knowledge and Skill of all the Arts in the World because the Laws Judge all indifferently and to know the Rights and Pleas of each distinct Profession it becomes necessary to have the particular Knowledge of them all and accordingly Cicero said No Man is to be ranked in the Number of the Orators but he that is compleatly furnished with all the Arts. But seeng it was impossible to learn all the Sciences first because of the brevity of Life and next from the Wit of Man being so limited they let them pass contenting themselves in such necessities to give credit to the Masters in every Art whose Cause they pleaded without more ado After this way of Pleading of Causes immediately succeeded the Doctrin of the Gospel which might better have been persuaded by the Art of Rhetoric than all the Sciences in the World as being of greater Truth and Certainty But Christ our Redeemer charged St. Paul to Preach not with Wisdom of Words lest the Gentiles should have thought what he taught was one of those Well-contrived-Fables which the Orators of those Times made use of to persuade by force of their Art But now that the Faith is received and established many Years since it is allowed to Preach with Rhetorical Topics and to make use of Eloquence since we need no longer apprehend the Inconveniencies that attended it in St. Pauls Time Besides we observe the Preacher who has the qualifications of a compleat Orator does more good and has a greater Auditory than he who is none The reason of which is very clear for if the Orators of Old made the people swallow Falsities for Truths applying to that end the Rules and Precepts of their Art the Christian Auditors will be much better convinc'd when they are persuaded by the same Artifice of the things they already Understand and Believe Besides that the Holy Scripture in a sort is all things and to interpret it well there is occasion for all the Sciences according to that famous saying She has sent forth her Maidens she cryeth upon the highest places of the City There is no need to recommend this to the Preachers of our Times nor acquaint them how far it is allowed them for besides the particular benefit they pretend from their Doctrin their principal Study is to seek out a fine Text to which they may pertinently apply many thoughts and fine passages drawn out of Sacred Writ Holy Fathers Poets Historians Physitians and Lawyers not leaving out any one Science launching out copiously with Eloquence and abundance of fine Words By which means they spin out their Sermons for the space of an hour or two if there be occasion Cicero said that this was proper to him that made profession of the perfect Orator in his time The Power and Profession of an Orator in speaking well seems to promise and undertake so much that let the Matter handled be what it will to discourse of it fluently and amply Now if we can prove that the Graces and Qualifications requisite to a compleat Orator belong all to the Imagination and Memory We shall make it out that the Divine who possesses them shall be a very great Preacher But if he applies himself to the Doctrin of Scotus and St. Thomas he will make little of it because this is a Science pertaining to the Understanding in which Faculty he is but very Weak We have already elsewere declared what things belong to the Imagination and by what Marks they are to be known and now to refresh the Memory we are a going to repeat them Whatever is spoke in good figure close to the purpose and on a suddain are Gifts of the Imagination and so are pleasant Jests Allusions Sentences and Comparisons The first thing a Perfect Orator should do when he takes his Theme in hand is to look out some Argument some apposite Sentences and Passages with which he may amplify and prove the same and not to make use of any sort of Words but only of the well-Sounding to the Ears as Cicero said I esteem him truly
him but the Master that had taught him no better because the Cognizance and Solution of the Motions of Divine Providence as they are Supernatural Acts appertain to the Metaphysicians now a-days called Divines for the Gardener's question was Natural and properly belong'd to the Natural Philosophers those being establish'd and manifest Causes whence such Effects are produc'd For which reason the Philosopher says That the Earth resembled a Mother-in-law that took a particular care of her own Children but starved those of her Husband for we observe hers to be plump and in good liking but the other meager lank and ill coloured The Plants the Earth produces of her self come out of her own Bowels those the Gardener raises are forc'd by Art being the Daughters of another strange Mother void of the Virtue and Nourishment that should make them thrive and what is communicated only to the Plants she her self brings forth Hippocrates confirm'd this in his Visit he made to the great Philosopher Democritus who acquainted him with the false Notions the People had of Physic who as if they were free from all Diseases had nothing in their Mouths but that God had healed them and if it had not pleased him the Physicians Care and Skill had been all employed to no purpose and the like This is the old way of Talking and which has so often been in vain exploded by the Naturalists that it is not worth while to endeavour to silence it Neither is it altogether convenient because the Vulgar who are not acquainted with the particular Causes of any Effect whatever answer better and with more truth from the universal Cause which is God than to run into Impertinences However I have many times consider'd with my self whence it should come that the Vulgar should so readily ascribe all things to God taking no notice at all of Nature and not without some secret Abhorrence of Natural Means I know not well how to divine the true Cause but thus much I find that the Generality of People being ignorant which Effects more immediately to refer to God and which to Nature prate after this manner besides that Men are for the most part impatient and Friends to those that first gratify their Desires And the Process of Nature being slow and requiring length of Time they have not Patience to attend the Event but knowing the Omnipotence of God who in an Instant does what he pleases of which they want not many Instances they either beg at his Hands Health with the Paralitic or Wisdom with Solomon or Riches with Job or Deliverance from their Enemies with David An other Reason is because Men are Opinionative and Conceited most of them wishing in their Hearts that God would distinguish them by some particular Favour not in the common Road and as he makes the Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust and the Rain to descend upon all alike Favours being rather the more esteem'd by how much the Rarer they are and more Appropriate to a few Upon which pretence we have seen many Men feign Miraracles in Times and Places of Devotion for which cause People flock about them and pay just Veneration to them as Persons in Favour and Esteem with Heaven and if they are poor they bestow considerable Alms upon them who play the Religious Counterfeits for Interest The third Cause is Men are lovers of their Ease and Natural Causes being in such an Order and Concatenation as requires a great deal of Time and Application to discover their Effects therefore they had rather God should exert his Omnipotence that so they might without the least Pain or Delay obtain their Desires I shall take no notice of the Malice of those who seek for Miracles from God to tempt his Omnipotence to try if he can work them nor of others who to gratify their Revenge call for Fire from Heaven and the like severe Instances of the Divine Vengeance The last Reason is that the Vulgar generally speaking are very Religious and desirous that God should be greatly Honour'd and much Glorified which comes to pass by Miracles rather than Natural Events for the common People are not aware that God is not the Author of all Supernatural and Extraordinary things so much to proclaim his Almighty Power to the Ignorant as to employ them as nobler Arguments to confirm his Doctrin and that unless upon such an Emergency he never works any This is easily understood if we consider that God works not now such Miracles as once in the Old and New Testament and the Reason is because he has already done all that was necessary on his part that Man might not pretend Ignorance but to imagine that he should be ready to employ the same Arguments again and again and work new Miracles to confirm afresh his old Doctrin as in the Instances of raising the Dead giving Sight to the Blind Feet to the Lame and Paralitic is a great mistake for at the same instant as God teaches Men what is convenient he confirms it by Miracles without repeating them every day a-new God spoke once and did not repeat the same a second time The clearest Indication I have to discover a Man that has no Wit propense to Natural Philosophy is when I see him referring all things to Miracles without any distinction As on the other hand there is no need to call in question their Understanding who cannot rest satisfied without discerning the particular Cause of every Effect These are well aware that some Events are to be referred immediately to God as are Miracles and others again to Nature as those that have their immediate Causes from which they ordinarily flow But let us talk at what rate we please God is always understood to be the Author even of the last for when Aristotle said God and Nature make nothing in Vain he never meant that Nature was an Universal Cause having a Power independent upon God but a Name only of that Order and Subordinate Rule appointed by God himself in the Creation of the World to the end that such Effects might duly succeed as were necessary to its Conservation and Continuance in the same state So we say the King and Civil Right can do no Wrong by which manner of speaking no Man takes the Term Right to signifie another Prince of separate Jurisdiction from the King but rather as a Term by its signification importing all the Laws and Ordinances made by the King himself to preserve the State in Peace Like as a King has some peculiar Prerogatives that cannot be Determined by the Law as being Paramount and Extraordinary even so has God reserv'd to himself the Effects of Miracles for the Production of which he has given no Commission or Power to Natural Causes where by the way we may observe that he who takes them for such and can distinguish them from natural Effects must needs be a very acute Natural Philosopher and understand no less
without the Memory be present to it to offer and represent to it the Figures and Species according to the Saying of Aristotle He that understands has no more to do but to reflect on the Images Nor the Memory again without being seconded by the Imagination according as we have elsewhere noted we may easily conclude that all the three Faculties are joined and united together in each Ventricle that the Understanding is not by it self in one nor the Memory by it self in the other nor the Imagination by its self in the third as the Vulgar Philosophers have thought This Union of Powers and Virtues uses to be made in Humane Bodies when one cannot act without the Concurrence of the other as appears in the four Natural Virtues The Attractive the Retentive Digestive and Expulsive which to be of use one to the other have by Nature been assembled in one and the same Place and not separated from each other But if all this be true to what end has Nature prepared those three Ventricles and to each of them joined all the three Rational Powers since any one of the three was sufficient for the Understanding and the Memory to play their parts To this may be answered That it is equally difficult to know why Nature has made two Eyes and as many Ears since in each of them the whole power of Seeing and Hearing resides and one may see with one Eye alone To this it may be said That how much greater the Number of Organs of the Powers appointed and established for the Perfection of the Animal is so much more assured is the Perfection and Possession of them because by some Accident one or two may fail and then it is convenient that there should be a Supply from others of the same kind which may be ready to Act. In the Disease call'd by Physicians the Resolution of the Sinews or Palsy of half the Body the Operation of the Ventricle that answers to the Sick-side is usually lost in such manner as if the two others remained not entire and unhurt the Man would be stupid without Reason And nevertheless from the want of this Ventricle alone he is observed to be very weak as well in the Actions of the Understanding as of the Imagination and Memory Even as he who uses to See with two Eyes would be at a loss in his Sight if one of them was quite out By which means it may be clearly understood that in each Ventricle all the three Faculties are found since from the hurt of one alone the other three are all weakned Say now that all the three Ventricles are composed after the same manner and that there is no Diversity of Parts to be found in them we cannot be at a loss if we take the first Qualities for the Instrument and so make as many differences of Wit as there be of the first Qualities For it is against all Natural Philosophy to believe that the Rational Soul being in the Body can exercise her Operations without the Mediation of a Corporeal Instrument to assist her But of the four Qualities that appear the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness all Physicians reject the Cold as of no use at all in the Operations of the Rational Soul And accordingly it is observed by Experience in all the other Powers of Man that where the Cold overballances the Heat they are blunted and retarded in their Offices insomuch as neither the Stomach digests the Meat nor the Parts of Generation produce effective Seed nor the Muscles duly move the Body nor the Brain duly Reasons and Discourses For which reason Galen said The Cold manifestly incommodes and retards all the Operations of the Soul Serving only in the Body to allay the Natural Heat and to hinder it from being inflamed But Aristotle is of a contrary Opinion where he says The thick and hot Blood renders the Man strong and robust and the thinner and more Cold of a more delicate Sense and Vnderstanding Whence it clearly appears that from Cold proceeds the greatest difference of Wit in Man viz. the Understanding Aristotle therefore enquiring why the Men inhabiting hotter Countries as Aegypt is are more Subtile and Ingenious than those who live in colder Climates makes Answer That the Ambient Heat being excessive draws forth and consumes the Natural Heat of the Brain leaving it cold which makes Men more sharp And that on the contrary the great Ambient Cold concentrates the Natural Heat of the Brain not suffering it to disperse And further they who have very hot Brains says he can neither Reason nor Discourse but are Volatile never fixing on one Opinion Galen as it seems alluded to this where he says the reason why a Man changes his Opinion every moment is because he had a very hot Brain and on the contrary he that has a cold Brain will be firm and steady in his Opinion But the Truth is there is no difference of Wit proceeds from this Quality neither could Aristotle mean that the Blood cold in excess made the Understanding better but only when it is less hot When a Man is fickle it is true it proceeds from too great a Heat that raises transient Figures in his Brain making them as it were to boil by which means the Images of many things represent themselves at once to the Rational Soul awakening and inviting it to a Consideration of them and to enjoy all she leaves some and Embraces others The quite contrary happens in Cold which renders a Man fixt and stable in an Opinion because it keeps the Figures fast locked up not permitting them to fly so fast so that it represents no other Image to a Man but what is called for Cold has this Peculiar that it retards the Motions not only of Corporeal things but also renders the Figures and the Species by Philosophers termed Intellectual immovable in the Brain but this firmness seems rather to be a certain Dulness than a Difference of Wit There is another kind of Steadiness which proceeds from the Understanding being closer and more compact and not from any coldness of Brain Driness then Moisture and Heat remain as Instruments of the Rational Faculty But not one Philosopher knew how to assign in particular to each Difference of Wit the Quality that serv'd it for an Instrument Heraclitus said That the sharpness of Wit was from a dry Light By which words he gives us to undestand that Driness is the cause of the great Prudence and Wisdom in Man but he has not shewn in what kind of Knowledge a Man was Excellent by means of this Quality Plato intended no less when he affirm'd That the Soul upon its entring the Body was very Wise but that the great Moisture it met there render'd it lumpish and dull till as that Moisture wears off in Age and the Body becomes drier the Soul discovers that Knowledge and Wisdom it had at first Among Brute Beasts Aristotle said those are more
this not being to be done our Work appearing in Public to all the World it is impossible but I must needs leave you somewhat Surprized for if your's is a common and Vulgar Wit I doubt not but you are perswaded that the Number and Perfection of the Sciences has been by the Antients long since determined guided by a vain Reason that since they could find out nothing more to say 't is a sign that there is nothing new and if you happen to have such Sentiments go no further nor read any longer for it will but vex you to know what a wretched kind of Wit you are Master of but if you are deliberate and discreet I have three very true Conclusions to propose to you which for their Novelty are not a little to be admired The first is That of all the different Wits of Men there is but one as predominant can fall to thy share unless Nature straining hard as it were to form two or three Excellencies more in thee and being unable to effect what she designed has left thee off unwrought in haste as a rude Essay of an unfinish'd Piece The Second that to each different kind of Wit corresponds one Science only transcendently and no more for which reason if thou art not well assured in the Choice of what suits thy Talent thou wilt find thy self very short in the rest with the most assiduous Application The Third that after thou hast found out what Science corresponds best with thy Wit there remains if thou wouldst not err another greater difficulty which is whether the Practic or Theory suits best with thy Genius for these two Parts in all Sciences whatever are so opposite to each other and require Wits so diverse that they may be set one against the other in the place of Contraries A hard saying this I own and yet hard as it is what is yet the hardest of all is there is no Writ of Error or Appeal for who can say that he has received any Wrong for God is the Author of Nature who dispenses to each Man but one kind of Genius as I said but now notwithstanding the Opposition and Difficulty that lies in the uniting them he accommodates himself to her and of the Sciences he distributes Gratis amongst Men in a Miraculous way he gives no more than one in an Eminent Degree There are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit And there are diversities of Administrations but the same Lord And there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal for to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the Gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another the Working of Miracles to another Prophecy to another the discerning of Spirits to another divers kinds of Tongues to another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh one and the same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will Upon the whole Matter you see that even the Graces Men possess in the Church are very different yet are they all distributed by one and the same Spirit who is the source of all The Ministerial Employments are divers and yet 't is one and the same Lord who calls both the one and the other to his respective Function Neither is the Power of working Miracles equal and alike in all though it is the same God who produceth those Miraculous Acts which are performed by those to whom he has given that Power Nor are you to think that the Distribution of these Gifts which proclaim the Holy Spirit 's dwelling in him who possesses the same is without reason unequal Since in their distribution God has regard to what is of more Use and Advantage either for the farther Confirmation of those who already are Believers or for the Conversion of such as are yet Idolaters Whence it comes that one receives from the Holy Ghost the Gift of Wisdom to uncypher Divine Mysteries and another the Gift of Knowledge from the same Spirit and that also one has Faith by virtue of which he works a vast number of Miracles and heals all incurable Diseases another is armed with a power of Miracles of another kind as of foretelling many things to Come of Penetrating into the Breasts of Men and discerning the several secret Springs of all their outward Motions Hence is it one speaks many Languages unlearned and another is the Interpreter to understand them all because as I told you before it is one and the same Spirit who is Author of all these Gifts and who distributes them according to his good Pleasure I question not in the least but God made that distribution of Sciences with regard to each Man's Wit and Natural Genius seeing the Talents he bestow'd in St. Matthew says the same Evangelist that he distributed them to each according to his own Virtue For 't is a very gross Mistake to fancy that these Supernatural Sciences require not certain previous Dispositions in the Subject before they can be infused For when God Form'd Adam and Eve 't is certain that he first filled them with Wisdom in Organizing their Brain after such a manner as was every way becoming an Instrument appropriated to Reason and Discourse To this purpose speaks Sacred Writ He has filled them with the Spirit of God in Wisdom in Knowledge in Vnderstanding and in all manner of Workmanship And according to the difference of each Man's Wit one Science was rather infused than another and more or less of each of them which may be understood by the same Instance of our first Parents for when God fill'd 'em both with Wisdom 't is agreed on by all hands that he gave less to Eve which was the Cause say the Divines that the Devil undertook to seduce her not daring to tempt Man as being in awe of a Superior Wisdom The reason of this as we shall prove by and by is that the Natural Composition of Woman's Brains is not susceptible either of much Wit or great Wisdom We shall find the same thing in Angelic Substances that God to raise one Angel to greater Degrees of Glory and more elevated Gifts gave him first a more delicate Nature And if one should ask the Divines of what use is that Delicate Nature they answer That an Angel who is of a more Elevated Understanding and refined Nature more readily inclines to the Will of God and more efficaciously employs those Gifts the self same Thing happening even among Men. Whence may manifestly be inferred that seeing there is a difference of Wits for Supernatural Sciences and that all kind of Capacities are not fit Instruments alike for them by far greater reason Humane Learning requires it because what Men learn is purely by force of their Wit The
very just and proper because Sleep and Stupidity proceed alike from the same Principles that is to say the great Coldness and exceeding Moisture of the Brain There is another kind of Incapacity in Wit not quite so Stupid as the former because at least they conceive the first Principles and draw Conclusions thence tho' few and not without much pains but the Impression of them remains in their Memories no longer than their Masters are talking to them and making them understand the same by Examples and Methods of Teaching agreeable to their rude and gross Understandings They resemble some Women who being big with Child are delivered but the Child dies as soon as it is born These Mens Brains are full of a Flegmatic Moisture for which cause the Ideas finding nothing Oily or Viscous neither stick nor are pliant so to teach them would be to draw Water with a Sieve A Fool 's Heart and Mind are like a bottomless Vessel pour what Precepts of Wisdom you please in none will remain there There is a third sort of Disability very common among Men of Letters who have some smattering of Wit for they take the first Notions and draw thence their Conclusions with which they overcharge and load their Memory but when they should range every thing in Order commit a Thousand Blunders These may be compar'd to a Woman deliver'd of a Child with the Head in the place of the Feet and the Eyes seated behind the Head There is found so great a Confusion of the Figures in the Memory of this third sort of Insipids that when they would be understood they have no less than an Hundred ways of speaking to Express themselves because they have conceiv'd an Infinity of things altogether undigested and without Order or Connexion of Parts These in the Schools are call'd Confus'd whose Brains are unequal as well in Substance as Temperament in some places compos'd of delicate Parts and in others of gross and ill temper'd and because it is also Various and Ununiform sometimes they speak Witty and Notable things and immediately after fall into a Thousand Impertinences Of these it is said A Fool 's Wisdom in his Brains is like a House in Ruins his Knowledge wants Words to express its self Nay I have observ'd a fourth Defect amongst Men of Letters which is not altogether Incapacity and yet they have not Wit enough for I find they that possess it take Learning retain it firmly in their Memory fix the Forms with the Correspondence they ought to have speaking and acting very well when there is occasion for it but if one sounds them and should ask the Essential Causes of what they know and understand they are easily found they have no bottom and that all their Sufficience was but a Facility to comprehend the Terms and Axioms of the Doctrin they were taught without penetrating why or how it was so Aristotle said of these That there are some Men who Brute-beast-like speak by Natural Instinct and say more than they know or consider after the manner of inanimate Beings who fail not to act very well although they are as insensible of the Effects they produce as the Fire of what it burns and the Cause of this is Nature leads them so that they cannot fail of attaining their End Aristotle might well have compar'd them to some Animals who seem to perform all their Actions with a show of Reason and Design but he supposing these Animals had at least some kind of knowledge of what they did past to Inanimate Agents because in his Opinion these though not wise and wanting Wit yet operated and very well too without being able to distinguish the Effect from the ultimate Cause This difference of Incapacity or if you please of Wit might be fully made out if without offence to any I were permitted to point to them with my Finger for I have both seen and known many such CHAP. III. The Child who has neither Wit nor Ability requisite to the intended Science cannot prove a great Proficient though he have the best Masters many Books and should labour at it all the Days of his Life 'T WAS a happy thought in Cicero in order to accomplish his Son Marcus in that sort of Learning he had made choice of for him that it would be sufficient to send him to an Academy so famous throughout the World as that of Athens to place him under so great a Master as Cratippus one of the most celebrated Philosophers of the Age and in a City which by the vast Concourse of People of all Nations met together must unavoidably furnish him with a multitude of great Examples and novel Accidents that would experimentally instruct him in his designed Studies Yet notwithstanding all the best Methods an indulgent Father could take buying some and Writing other Books for him History informs us that he prov'd a meer Blockhead equally destitute of Eloquence and Philosophy Nature being often even with the Son for her Prodigality to the Father and indeed the great Orator was mistaken in imagining that the Industry of such a Master the best Books the most refin'd Conversation of that famous Town and an unwearied application of Mind together with time sufficient to build his Hopes upon could supply the Defects of a Soul naturally incapable both of Eloquence and Philosophy At length we find he was disappointed which is the less to be wonder'd at being misled by innumerable Instances of the like Rencounters that flatter'd him with the same change in the disposition of his Son Nay he himself acquaints us That Xenocrates had no Genius for the study of Natural and Moral Philosophy for Plato used to call him his Hopeless Scholar yet the indefatigable Diligence of the Tutor and continued Endeavours of the Pupil produc'd an Excellent Philosopher He says also of Cleanthes that he was so dull and stupid that no Master would admit him to his School which shamed and confounded the Youth to such a degree that by an assiduous Application he acquired the Name of a Second Hercules in knowledge Nor were there the least hopes that Demosthenes should ever succeed in Eloquence who as Authors affirm was almost a Man before he could speak yet through his own unwearied Labours and the assistance of good Masters he became the greatest Orator in the World And Tully amongst other things recounts that he had such an Impediment in his Speech that he could not pronounce the Letter R yet by his Address he so happily overcame it that it was impossible to discern his former Defect which gave Birth to the Saying That Humane Capacity for Studies resembles a Game at Tables where if the Dice run cross the Gamester must supply the want of Fortune with his better Play But according to my Principles the Answer is ready to all Cicero's Examples For as I shall prove hereafter a slow Wit in Children promises a happier Progress in their riper Age more than an early
than every Effect as it springs from its immediate Cause tho' this is not enough neither if the Catholic Church hath never declared them for such for like as Advocates engaged in the Study of the Civil Law have it imprinted in their Memory the better to know and understand the Kings Pleasure in the Determination of each particular Case Even so the Natural Philosophers being Advocates in their Faculty place their whole Study in this to know the Order God establish'd at the instant he created the World the better to discern what Causes produce what Effects and why And as it would be ridiculous for a Lawyer to alledge in his Breviate as a strong Proof that the King commanded such an Arrest in such a Case without shewing the Law and the Rule of Court by which it ought to be decided So the Natural Philosophers laugh at them who pronounce this or that is God's Work without running through the Order and inseparable Connexion of all the particular Causes concern'd in its immediate Production And for the same reason as a King denies to hearken to those that press him to Abrogate and Null a just Law or finally to decide a Case contrary to the standing Rules and Orders of his Ministerial Courts so neither will God likely hearken to those that importune him for Miracles and Signs out of the ordinary Course and Ministry of Nature when there is no Occasion for them For should a King every day null and make Laws and alter the Course of Justice be it for the diversity of Occasions or through the changes in his Councils because Right and Justice are not arrived at all at once yet the Natural Order of the Universe by us called Nature from the Creation to this Day has suffer'd no Change or Alteration in the least for he made it with so much Wisdom and Prudence that not to continue constant in that Order would be tacitly to lay a blame upon his Works But to return to that common Saying of the Antient Philosophers Nature makes able it is to be understood that there is a Wit and Ability bestow'd by God on Men out of the ordinary Course of Nature such was the Wisdom of the Apostles who being rude and illiterate were wonderfully enlightned and fill'd with Wisdom and Knowledge Which sort of Parts and Qualifications verify not that Nature makes able for that is a Work to be attributed immediately to God and not to Nature The like is to be understood of the Wisdom of the Prophets and of all others upon whom God has poured any of his Gifts There is another sort of Wit among Men produced by the Order and Dependence of Causes appointed by God to lead to such an end and of this kind it may be truly said Nature makes able For as we shall prove in the last Chapter of this Work there is a certain Order and Dependence of Natural Causes so that if Parents in the Act of Generation would duly observe it all their Children would be Wise and none of them Otherwise However in this Discourse such a signification of Nature is too loose and confus'd nor is the Understanding content to rest here without tracing every particular Effect up to its Ultimate Cause and therefore there is need to find out another meaning of this Word Nature which may be more accommodate to our purpose Aristotle and all other Natural Philosophers were more Particular calling Nature every substantial Form that gives Being to a thing and is the Principle of all its Operations In which sense our Rational Soul with good Reason is call'd Nature for from thence we receive the Form and Being we have of Men and the same is the Principle of all our Actions for all Rational Souls are of equal Perfection as well the Wise Man 's as the Fool 's and so we may not pronounce that it is Nature in this sense makes a Man witty for if that were true all Men would be equal in Wit and Capacity and thereupon the same Aristotle found out another Signification of Nature importing the Reason and Cause of a Man's being capable or incapable saying that the Temperament of the four first Qualities Heat Cold Moisture and Driness were to be call'd Nature inasmuch as from them proceed all the Abilities of Men all the Virtues and Vices and all the great variety of Wit we discover in the World And he proves it clearly by considering the several Parts of the Age of the wisest Man who in his Childhood is no more than a Brute Beast employing no other Powers than the Irascible and Concupiscible when Youth comes he betrays an admirable Wit which we see continues to a certain Period and no longer for old Age drawing on his Wit every day declines till in the End it is wholly lost Assuredly the diversity of Wit proceeds not from the Rational Soul for that in all Ages is the same without suffering any Alteration in its Vigor or Substance except a Man in the several Stages of his Life changes his Constitution or has a different Disposition and from hence is it that the Soul acts one part in the Childhood another in Youth and yet another in old Age whence may be drawn an evident Argument that seeing the same Soul performs contrary Acts in one and the same Body by having in each Division of Age a different Temperament whensoever of two Boys the one is Witty the other a Dunce the same happens by each having a diverse Temperament from the other which being the Principle of all the Operations of the reasonable Soul is by Physicians and Philosophers call'd Nature in which sense this Saying Nature makes able is properly Verified In confirmation of which Doctrin Galen writ a Book proving that the Operations of the Soul were influenc'd by the Temperament of the Body in which it dwelt and that by reason either of the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness of the Climate where they lived or the Qualities of the Meat they eat and of the Waters they drank and of the Air they breathed in some were Fools and others Wise some Stout and others Cowards some Cruel and others Gentle some Reserv'd and others Open some Lyars and others Speakers of Truth some Traytors and others Loyal some Turbulent and others Calm some Crafty and others Sincere some Sordid and others Generous some Modest and others Impudent some Incredulous and others Credulous in Proof of which he quotes many Places out of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle asserting that the Diversity of Nations as to the Frame of their Bodies and the Turn of their Soul was owing to this Difference of Temperament Which is found true by Experience how much the Greeks differ from the Scythians the French from the Spaniards the Indians from the Germans and the Ethiopians from the English Neither is this only to be observ'd in Parts so remote from each other but if we consider even the Provinces that surround all
the Species long all the Philosophers assert that hardness and driness are no less necessary as it appears in things from without for an impression in a soft Matter soon wears out but is never utterly effac'd if made on a dry and hard Body Accordingly we see many learn easily by Heart what they as soon after forget Of which Galen giving the Reason affirms That such from the abundance of Moisture have a fluid and no solid Substance in the Brain which occasions the Figure to wear out as soon as it would do should any pretend to Grave on Water On the contrary the other difficultly take any thlng but never lose what they have once learned Wherefore it seems impossible to have that Difference of Memory we have spoke of to learn readily and to retain long 'T is also no less difficult to understand how so many Figures can be imprinted together in the Brain without one effacing the other and that the same thing falls not out as we see in soft Wax on which if one imprints several Seals of different Forms some will force out the others there remaining only behind a promiscuous Confusion of Figures And what affords no less pain and difficulty is to know whence it arises that the Memory by constant Exercise is made more capable to receive the Figures since it is certain that the Exercise not only of the Body but even of the Mind dries and consumes the Flesh It is also as difficult to discern how the Imagination is contrary to the Understanding if there appear no other reason more pressing than to say the subtil Parts of the Brain are resolved and discussed by much Heat and that there remain behind the grossest and most earthy since Melancholy is allow'd to be one of the grossest and earthiest Humors of the Body Yet Aristotle said That the Understanding received more Advantage from that than from any other The difficulty seems yet greater when we come to consider that Melancholy is a gross cold and dry Humor and that Choler is of a delicate Substance and of a hot and dry Temperament This appears repugnant to Reason because this last Humor promotes the Understanding by means of two Qualities and is contrary only to one which is Heat And Melancholy favours it by Driness alone and nothing else being contrary to it both in the coldness and grossness of the Substance which is what the Understanding most of all abhors For which reason Galen assigned more Wit and Prudence to Choler than Melancholy Dexterity and Prudence are owing to Choler but the Melancholy Humour is the cause of Integrity and Constancy Lastly it is demanded Whence it comes that the Application to Study and Assiduous Speculation renders many knowing and wise who at the beginning wanted the good Natural Qualities we have mentioned and yet nevertheless by the force of Intention of Mind they have attained the Knowledge of many Truths of which before they were ignorant when it appears they had not the requisite Temperament to arrive at it for if they had had it they needed not to have taken so much pains All these Difficulties and many more are opposite to the Doctrin laid down in the last Chapter because in effect Natural Philosophy has no such certain Principles to proceed by as the Mathematics in which a Physician and Philosopher who is also a Mathematician may always give some Demonstrations but in coming to Cure Diseases according to the Rules of Physic he will commit therein many Errors not always through his own fault since in the Mathematics he may be always sure but because of the Uncertainty of his Art Which made Aristotle say The Physician who uses all the Diligence required by his Art though he does not always Cure the Patient yet he ought not to be esteemed Vnskilful in his Profession But if the same man should commit the least Error in the Mathematics he would be without Excuse because if they employ what care they ought in this Science it is impossible to fail of being certain So that since there is no Demonstration to be given of our Doctrin all the fault is not to be attributed to Defect of Skill nor is it to be inferred from thence that what we have deliver'd is false To the first and main Doubt we Answer that it must be consider'd there are two sorts of Understanding in man one of which is the Power in the Rational Soul and that is as incorruptible as the Rational Soul it self without depending in the least upon the Body or its material Organs either for its Being or Preservation and Aristotle's Arguments have only place with regard to this Power The other sort of Understanding is all that which appears necessary in the Brain of man to the end he may understand as he ought 'T is in this Sense we use to say Peter has a better Understanding than John which cannot be taken for the Power lodged in the Soul because it is of equal Perfection in all but rather for some of the organic Powers which the Understanding makes use of in its Acts some of which it performs well and others ill not at all through its own fault but because the Powers it makes use of in some find good Organs and in others ill Which is to be understood in no other manner since we find by Experience not only that some men Reason better than others but even that the same Person Reasons and Discourses well at one Age and ill at another as we have already prov'd Nay there are some who lose their Judgment even as others recover it from certain Distempers of the Brain Which is particularly seen in the Hectic Fever better than in any other for when that once begins to reach the Brain the Sick Person begins also to Speak and Reason more Eloquently and Judiciously than he used and how much the deeper that Evil gets Root so much the more excellent are the Operations of the Understanding which was not consider'd by some of the Antient Physicians though this Knowledge be of so great importance in the first Appearance of the Disease when the Cure is easy But what these organic Powers are of which the Understanding makes use in its Operations has not yet been resolv'd or determin'd seeing the Natural Philosophers say that if one man Reasons better than another it comes from the Understanding's being an Organic Power and better dispos'd in one than another and not for any other Reason For all Rational Souls and their Capacities when separated from their Bodies are of equal Perfection and Knowledge Those that follow the Doctrin of Aristotle seeing by Experience that some Reason better than others have found out a seeming Colour saying That if one Man Reasons better than another it comes not from the Understanding's being an organic Power nor from the Brain 's being better disposed in one than in the other but because the Understanding so long as the
the Past and Prudence of the Future The Dexterity of Wit is what we call in Spanish Agudeza in agibilibus and is in other terms Fineness Wiliness or Cunning and Craft in the things and Intrigues of the World And therefore Cicero said That Prudence was a Skill which had a certain way to make choice of Good and Evil. Men of great Understanding are without this sort of Prudence and Skill because they want Imagination Accordingly we see by Experience that great Scholars as to the things appertaining to the Understanding taken from their Books signify nothing to go and engage in the Affairs of the World Galen said excellently well That this sort of Prudence proceeded from Choler for Hippocrates acquainting his Friend Damagetes with the Condition he found Democritus in when he went to Visit him in order to his Cure writ that he was in the open Field under a Plain-tree bare Leg'd set upon a Stone a Book in his hand and surrounded with Dead and Flead Beasts at which Hippocrates being surpriz'd asked him what he did with those Beasts that were in such a case He Answer'd him that he was in search of the Humor that made Men Fickle Crafty False and Deceitful and that in dissecting those brute Beasts he had found that Choler was the cause of this mischievous Quality and that to be revenged on Men of Gall and Guile he would treat them as he had done the Fox the Serpent and the Ape This kind of Prudence is not only odious to Men but also St. Paul says The Carnal Mind is at Enmity against God And Plato gave the Reason of it saying That Knowledge abstracted from Justice rather merits the name of Craft and Cunning than of Wisdom The Devil always makes use of such Weapons when he would do mischief to Men. This Wisdom said St. James descendeth not from above but is earthy sensual and devilish There is another sort of Wisdom attended with Uprightness and Simplicity by which Men follow that which is good and fly that which is evil Galen says this kind belongs to the Understanding because that Faculty is wholly incapable of Craft or Malice only knowing how Evil is not done but is Upright Just Frank and Innocent The Man who is endow'd with this kind of Wit is called Upright and Simple Accordingly Demosthenes being desirous to win the good Will of the Judges in a Speech he made against Eschines called them Just and Upright having an eye to the Simplicity of their Employment Of whom Cicero said Their Duty is simple and one only Cause of all Good The Coldness and the Driness of Melancholy is a very proper Instrument for this kind of Wisdom but then it must be composed of fine and very delicate Parts We may Answer to the last Doubt That when a Man is engaged in the Contemplation of a truth he would know and does not presently attain it it is because his Brain is deprived of the Temperament convenient to what he desir'd but fixing a while in Contemplation as soon as the Natural Heat that is in the Vital Spirits and Arterial Blood flys to the Head the same causes the Temperament of the Brain to rise always till it arrive at the degree it has occasion for 'T is true that much Plodding does good to some and harm to others for if there be no want in the Brain to attain the due degree of Heat there will be no occasion for deep Meditation and if it pass beyond the point the Understanding is strait disordered by an overflow of too many Vital Spirits by means of which it attains not to the Notice of the Truth it is in search of Whence it comes that we observe many Men speak very well extempore but perform very meanly with premeditation On the contrary others have such a slow Capacity because of their great Coldness or Driness that of necessity the Natural Heat must be a long time in the Head to cause the Temperament to rise to the degree it wants and therefore they quit themselves much better when they have had time to recollect what they have to say than when they are to speak extempore CHAP. X. Each Difference of Wit is appropriated to the Science with which it most particularly agrees removing what is Repugnant or contrary to it ALL the Arts said Cicero are setled upon certain Universal Principles which being learned with Study and Labour the Science at length is acquir'd Only the Art of Poetry has this in peculiar That if God and Nature make not the Man a Poet he will never be enabled by Rules and Precepts to make a Verse which occasion'd him to say The Study and Knowledge of other things depend upon the Precepts of Art but the Poet is so by Nature he is only excited by the force of his Wit and is as it were inspired with a Divine Enthusiasm But Cicero was not in the right because in effect there is no Art or Science invented in the Commonwealth which can be attained by a Man who is Incapable although he labour all his Life time in the Precepts and Rules thereof whereas if he falls upon a Science agreeable to his Natural Inclination we may observe he will make some Progress in the space of few days 'T is the same thing in Poetry for if he who has a proper Talent apply himself to make Verses he will soon acquit himself very well and if not he will always remain a dull Poet. This being so it seems to me there is a time to find out by Art to which Difference of Wit each sort of Science in particular Corresponds to the end that every one may distinctly understand after having first discover'd his own Nature and Temperament to which Art he is most inclined The Arts and Sciences acquired by means of the Memory are these following Grammar Latin and all other Languages whatever the Theory of the Law Positive Divinity Cosmography and Arithmetic Those that belong to the Understanding are School Divinity the Theory of Physic Logic Natural and Moral Philosophy the Practice of the Law which is the Advocates Science From a good Invention spring all the Arts and Sciences whatever that depend upon Figure Correspondence Harmony and Proportion such as are Poetry Rhetoric Music and the Art of Preaching the Practice of Physic the Mathematics Astronomy the Military-Art and that of Governing a Commonwealth to Paint to Design to Write and Read to be Agreeable Gentile Pleasant in Words and happy in Expressions to be Dextrous in the Affairs and Intrigues of Life to have a ready Wit for Machines and all that Artificers pretend to as also an Address admired by the Vulgar which is to dictate several Matters to four Persons at the same time all well digested and in good Order Of all which we can't give evident Demonstration nor prove each thing severally for that was never yet done but we will prove
to the Understanding being Writ in Latin that even such as want a good Memory can Read and Study those Books the Latin Tongue being so repugnant to them by reason of a defective Memory We may solve the first Problem thus There is no better Test to discover if a Man wants Understanding than to note if he be Haughty in Punctilio's of Honour Presumptuous Elated Ambitious and Ceremonious The reason is that all these are the Effects of a Difference of Imagination which requires no more than one Degree of Heat with which the great Moisture requisite to Memory consists well because this Degree of Heat is not of force sufficient to resolve it On the contrary an infallible sign that a Man is naturally humble is when he is observ'd to undervalue himself and whatever comes from him or relates to him and that not only Vaunts not and commends not himself but is offended at and scarce admits the Praises bestow'd on him by others being uneasie and in pain with Punctilio's and in places of Ceremony that Man I say who has these Marks may justly pass for a Man of great Understanding but of little Imagination and Memory I said naturally Humble because if it be by Art it is no certain sign whence it comes that the Grammarians are provided with so great a Memory and uniting with it this difference of Imagination which we just now mentioned they are necessarily deficient in their Understanding and such as the Proverb described To the second Problem may be answer'd That Galen gathering the Wit of Men from the Temperament of the Region they inhabit says That all those who dwell Northerly are defective in Understanding and those Situated between the North and the Torrid Zone are most Prudent which Position answers exactly to our Country and without doubt it is so for Spain is neither so Cold as the Northern Climes nor so Hot as the Torrid Zone Aristotle seems to be of the same Opinion when he Enquires Why those that live in very cold Countries have not so good an Understanding as those Born in very hot In his Answer he treats but coursly the Flemmings Germans English and French saying That the greater part of the Wits of those Nations resembled that of Drunkards for which reason they could not search into or know the Nature of things And the Cause of this is the overflow of Moisture in their Brains and other Parts of their Body which the fairness of their Complexions and the flaxen Colour of their Hair denotes and that it is a wonder to see a German bald and besides that they are all big and of large Stature through the abundance of Moisture which is a dilater of the Body The contrary is discern'd in the Spaniards who are a little Tawny black Hair'd of mean Stature and for the most part Bald which is a disposition affirm'd by Galen proceeding from a hot and dry Brain And if that be true they must of necessity have an ill Memory but a good Understanding and the German a great Memory and little Understanding Accordingly one of them cannot learn Latin and the other learns it readily The reason given by Aristotle to prove the little Understanding of the Northern People is that the great Ambient Cold of the Country forces the Natural Heat inward by an Antiperistasis and hinders it from being dissipated and so they have abundance of Moisture and Heat it is therefore these People are at the same time furnished with a good Memory for the Tongues and with a good Imagination by means of which they make Clocks bring the Water from the River to Toledo invent Machines and very curious Works which the Spaniards cannot make because they want Imagination but if they apply themselves to any point of Logic Philosophy School-Divinty Physic and the Laws a Spaniard without Comparison will speak more sublime and quainter things in his own Tongue and in barbarous Terms than a Stranger can do with all his fine Latin for take these People out of their Elegant and Polite Road of Writing and they perform nothing Extraordinary nor have they any Invention In Proof of this Doctrin Galen says In Scythia which is a Northern Country as a Wonder there arose one Philosopher whereas at Athens they are all such But though Philosophy and the other Sciences by us named are repugnant to these Northern People yet the Mathematics and Astronomy are proper to them because they have an Excellent Imagination The Answer to the third Problem depends on a much agitated Dispute between Plato and Aristotle One affirms that there are Words which naturally signify Things and that much Wit is requir'd to invent them which Opinion is favour'd by Holy Writ telling us that Adam gave to each Creature God set before him the proper Name most suitable to it But Aristotle would not yield that there was in any Tongue any Term or Figure of Speech that naturally signified the thing but that all Words were by Institution according to the Caprice and Fancy of Men. Accordingly it is known by Experience that Wine has more than Threescore Names and Bread as many and each its own in each Tongue nor can it be affirm'd of one that it is more proper and natural than all the rest for if it were all the Men in the World would use that However after all Plato's Opinion is truer For say the first Inventers of Tongues imposed Names according to their Fancy that Fancy was still with Reason as well in consulting the Ear as having regard to the Nature of the thing and observing the Graces of Pronounciation so as that the Words be not too long or too short and that there be no need of distorting the Mouth in Speaking giving the Accent in the proper place and the like Conditions to be observ'd that the Tongue be Eloquent and not Barbarous Of the Opinion of Plato was a Spanish Cavalier who diverted himself with Writing Books of Chivalry because he was furnished with that difference of Imagination which inclines a Man to such Stories and Lyes It is reported of him that being to bring into his Romance a certain fierce Giant he was for several days studying what Name would be most answerable to his Exploits but he could never chop upon it till playing one day at Tables with a Friend of his he heard the Master of the House say Ola Mochacho traquitantos a esta mesa That is to say Holla Boy bring hither some Dice for the Tables The Gentleman no sooner heard the Word Traquitantos but weighing the well sounding Name in his Ears without any longer stay for good Fortune rose up and said Gentlemen I play no longer for I have been a long while Inventing a Name that should agree well with a fierce Giant whom I make use of in certain Fictions I have composed and could not for my Life light upon it till I came to this House where I always received
is sufficient But when one Pleader speaks for the Plantiff and another for the Defendant and a third Lawyer fills the Place of a Judge this is like a Fight with drawn Sword and where they cannot speak so at random as when they fight in the Air without an Enemy If the Child advance not much in Grammar it is to be suspected that he has a good Understanding and therefore I say suspected because it does not necessarily follow that he who can't learn Latin hath a great Understanding Seeing we have proved before that Children furnished with a strong Imagination shall never attain any Perfection in that Tongue But that which may best discover this is Logic for this Science bears the same proportion with the Understanding as the Touchstone does with Gold Accordingly it is most certain that if he who makes his Course in Philosophy does not begin in a Month or two to Reason and raise some Objections and if there come not to his mind Arguments and Answers upon the matter treated of he has no Understanding at all but if he prove towardly in this Science it is an infallible sign that he has the right Understanding for the Law so that he may out of Hand apply himself to it without the least scruple Though I should think it better first to run through the Art for Logic is no more to the Understanding as we have already said than the Clogs which are clapt on the Feet of an untrained Mule going with which some time he takes to a more steady and agreeable Pace The same march our Understanding makes in Disputes being bound up by the Rules and Precepts of Logic. But if the Child which we have examined speeds not well in the Latin Tongue nor in Logic as he ought it must be considered if he be not provided with a good Imagination before we take him from the Study of the Laws for herein is found a great Mystery and it is good that the Republic know it it is that there are some Lawyers who being in the Chair work Wonders in Interpreting the Laws and others in Pleading but if you put the Staff of Office in their Hands you shall find them no more able to Govern than if the Laws had never been made for any such thing On the Contrary there are others who with two or three misunderstood-Laws which they learn'd at Salamanca if they should be put into any Command would acquit themselves to Admiration At which effect some Curious Wits are Surprized because they dive not into the Cause from whence it springs For the Reason of it is that to Govern belongs to the Imagination and not to the Understanding or Memory And that this is the Case may be plainly proved considering that the Common-wealth is to be maintained by Order and Consent of Parts every thing being in its due Place so that all joined together falls into a good Figure and Correspondence This we have proved many times before is a Work of the Imagination nor is it much more to the purpose to make a great Lawyer a Magistrate than to make a Deaf Man a Judge of Music This is to be understood ordinarily and not to be taken for a General Rule For we have already proved that Nature may join a great Understanding with a great Imagination so that in such a Case it would not be inconsistent but that the same Person might prove an Excellent Pleader and a famous Governor and we heretofore discovered that Nature being found strong with all the Powers she can have and labouring in a well disposed Matter may produce a Man of great Memory Understanding and Imagination who Studying the Laws may prove a Famous Reader an Accomplished Pleader and no less Admirable a Governor But Nature makes so few such as this cannot well pass for a General Rule CHAP. XIV That the Theory of Physic belongs part to the Memory and part to the Understanding and the Practice to the Imagination AT the time that Arabian Physic flourished there was a Physician highly Celebrated as well for his Reading as Writing Arguing Distinguishing Answering and Concluding of whom it was thought in respect of his great Skill that he was able to Raise the Dead and Cure all kinds of Diseases And yet the contrary came to pass for he never took the Cure of any in Hand but they Miscarried at which being vexed and ashamed he turned Friar complaining of his ill Fortune without being able to understand the true Spring and Cause of it And because the freshest Examples stronglier prove and make most Impression on the Senses it is the Opinion of many Grave Physicians that John Argentier a Modern Physician of our Time has much excelled Galen in reducing the Art of Physic to a better Method and yet notwithstanding 't is reported of him that he was so unsuccessful in his Practice that not one Patient of all his Country or Acquaintance durst venture to take Physic from him so much they apprehended his ill-Success Hereat the People have reason to be surprized being taught by Experience not only in those whom we have just mentioned but in many others also which they see every day that every Physician that is a great Clerk is not the ablest Practitioner Aristotle attemped to give the Reason of it but in my Opinion he has failed He thought the Reason that Physicians of his time were not so Successful in their Practice sprung from their General Notice of Man in common and their Ignorance of the Nature of each Particular Constitution contrary to the Emperics whose Care and Study was to know the Idiosyncracies of particular Men passing over the General Knowledge But he was without Reason for both the one and the other exercised themselves in Particular Cures and laboured what they could to find out the Nature of each Constitution in Particular The Difficulty then is to understand why the most Learned Doctors though they employ all their Lives in the Working of Cures never become Excellent in the Practice whereas others who are but Ignoramus's with three or four Rules of Physic learnt in the Schools can do greater Cures in less time The true Answer to this Doubt is not so easy to be found seeing that Aristotle failed in it though he spoke in a manner something to it But we keeping to the Principles of our Doctrin shall deliver the same more fully You are to know then that the Perfection of a Physician consists in two things which are as necessary to carry him on to the end of his Art as two Legs to go without Halting The first is to know from a right Method the Precepts and Rules of Curing Man in common without descending to Particulars The second is to be long Exercised in the Practice of Physic and to have Visited a great Number of Patients for neither do Men differ so far from one another but that in many things they agree nor are they so like neither
these Moors and their Descendents lose their black Colour not mixing at all with the Whites To me it seems it would have taken a great number of Years since it is now more than Two hundred Years since the first Gypsies came from Egypt into Spain and yet their Children have degenerated but a little from the nimble Wit and Cunning which their Ancestors brought out of Egypt no more than from their Tawney-Colour such is the force of Human Seed when it has received any well-rooted Quality And in like manner as the Moors in Spain transmit their Colour to their Descendents by means of their Seed though they be out of Ethiopia so likewise the Jews in Spain may communicate to their Descendents their Sharpness of Wit Without being in Egypt or eating Manna For to be Knowing or Ignorant are as well Accidents in Men as to be White or Black True it is that they are not now so quick and sharp as they were a Thousand Years ago for from the time they left off to eat Manna their Descendents came by degrees to degenerate from the use of Contrary Meats and from inhabiting a different Country from Egypt and drinking no such delicate Waters as in the Desart and also because they have mingled with Women of the Gentile Race who wanted this Difference of Wit But this is not to be denied them that as yet they have not utterly lost it CHAP. XV. To what Difference of Wit the Art-Military belongs and by what Marks the Man may be known who has it WHAT is the cause says Aristotle since Fortitude is not Esteemed the chief of all Virtues but Justice and Prudence greater than it yet the Commonwealth and all Men in a manner with one Consent more Esteem a Valiant Man and have more Honour for him in their Hearts than for the Just and Prudent although raised to great Place and Dignity To this Problem he Answers saying That there is no King in the World but is engaged in War either Offensive or Defensive and as it is to the Valiant that they owe Glory Empire Revenge upon their Enemies and the Preservation of their Dominions they give more Honour not to the Chief Virtue which is Justice but to that which is most Useful and Advantagious for if the Valiant were not treated thus at what a loss would Kings be to find Captains and Soldiers so frankly to venture their Lives in Defence of their Crowns and Countries Of the Asiatics it is reported that there was a part of them who armed themselves very Couragiously and being ask'd Why they had neither King nor Laws They answered That Laws made them Cowards and since a Necessity appeared for them to expose themselves to all the Hazards of War to drive others out of their State they chose rather to fight for themselves and reap the Fruit of their own Victories but this was an Answer of Barbarians rather than of reasonable People who know full well that without a King without a Commonwealth and without Laws it is not possible to preserve Men in Peace What Aristotle said was close to the Point though there be yet a better Answer which is this that when Rome Honoured her Captain with those Triumphs and Solemnities she did not only recompence the Bravery of the Conqueror but also his Justice by means of which he kept his Army in Peace and Concord his Conduct which he had made use of in his Exploits and their Temperance observed in abstaining from Wine Women and Gluttony which are apt to disorder the Judgment and produce fatal Mistakes in Councils Yea Prudence is more to be desired in a General and ought rather to be rewarded than Courage or Bravery for as Vegetius said There are few over-Couragious Captains that luckily accomplish great Actions and the Reason is that Prudence is more necessary in War than Boldness in Encountring But what this Prudence is which is necessary Vegetius could never find out nor specify the Difference of Wit he ought to have who Commanded in Chief and no marvel because the manner of Philosophizing on which this Knowledge depends was not then found out True it is that Enquiry falls not within our first Intention which was to make choice of Wits fit for Letters but War is a thing so perillous and depending on such deep Councils and it is of such importance for a King to know whom to trust his Power and Estate with that we shall do no meaner service to the Commonwealth in Teaching this difference of Wit and its Marks than in the other Differences of Wit we have described You are to know then that Malitia and Militia as they have one Name so likewise one Definition for by the change only of one Letter each reciprocally passes into the other What are the Properties and Nature of Malice Cicero recounts when he says That Malice is nothing else but a sly and wary Proceeding in Mischief and so it is in War no other thing is acted but how to offend the Enemy and to defend our selves from his Stratagems so that the best Property of a General is to be Malicious to his Enemy and not to interpret any of his Actions in good part but all in the worst Sense that can be taken and ever to stand upon his Guard Believe not thy Enemy with his Lips he sweetneth and his Heart betrayeth thee to make thee fall into the Pit he weepeth with his Eyes and if he light upon a fit occasion he will not be satisfied with thy Blood A fair instance of this we have in Holy Writ for when the Israelites were Besieged in Bethulia and Fatigued with Hunger and Thirst that famous Lady Judith issued out in a design to kill Holofernes and in her proceeding to the Assyrian Army she was stopt by the Centinels and Guards who asking her whether she was bound She answered with ambiguous Wit I am a Daughter of the Jews whom you have Besieged and I fled because I know full well that they will fall into your Hands and that you would treat them ill because they will not submit themselves to Mercy Therefore I resolved to wait upon Holofernes and to discover to him the Secrets of this obstinate People and to shew him which way he may enter the City without the loss of a Man Judith being brought into Holofernes's Presence threw her self at his Feet and with closed Hands began to Worship him and to speak to him the fairest Words that were ever spoke to Man in the World Insomuch that Holofernes and his whole Council made no scruple to believe all that she said to be true But she not unmindful of the Design she had formed in her Heart staid only till a convenient Occasion offered and cut off his Head A Friend has quite contrary Qualities and therefore ought always to be credited Accordingly Holofernes might better have believed Achior seeing he was his Friend who from a Zeal that he should
their Stock But the Honest want this Imagination many of whom to follow the fashion of the Lewd in turning and winding of their Penny in a few days have lost their whole Stock To this our Lord referrs in the Manage of the unjust Steward whom his Master call'd to Accompt for tho' he reserved a good part of his Goods to his own Use yet he carried his Cup so even as to get a Discharge and tho' this Wisdom was naughty Yet our Saviour commends it and says The Children of this World are Wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light For these last have for the most part a great Understanding by means of which they affect his Law and want Imagination to which the skill to live in the World belongs Accordingly many are morally Good who have not Wit enough to be Naught This way of Answering is more plain and sensible than the other For the Natural Philosophers because they could not penetrate so far have framed so frivolous and absurd a Cause as Fortune to whom they might attribute good or bad success and not to the Indiscretion or unskilfulness of Men. Four differences of Men are to be found in every Nation if any please to mark them some are Wise but seem not so others seem so and are not others neither are nor seem and others again both are and seem Some Men there are reserved slow of speech stayed in answering not curious nor copious of Words and who nevertheless have hidden within themselves a Natural Power pertaining to the Imagination whereby they know the Time and can embrace the opportunity of Business and how they are to manage themselves in the point without Communicating or Imparting their Mind to any other These the Vulgar call fortunate and happy imagining that with a little Skill and Discretion every thing falls into their Lap. Others on the contrary are Eloquent in Words and Discourse great Talkers Men that take upon them to Govern the World and that contrive how to make a little Money go a great way so that in the Opinion of the Vulgar none pass for more Able than they yet when it comes to the Point every thing lies on their hands undone These complain of Fortune calling her Blind Senseless and Brutish because Matters which they project and Execute with great Discretion she suffers not to ripen to any good Effect But if Fortune were able to plead for her self she would tell them You your selves are Blind Senseless and Brutish who being indiscreet esteem your selves Wise and in the use of undue Means promise your selves good successes This sort of Men have a difference of Imagination that gives a Gloss and Paint to their Words and Reasons making them seem to be what they are not Whence I conclude that the General who has the Wit requisite for the Art-Military and does duly forecast what he is to undertake will be fortunate and happy otherwise it will be in vain to think he shall ever gain a Victory unless God fight for him as he did for the Israelite-Armies And yet for all that they chose the Wisest and Skilfullest Commanders they had for it is not reasonable to leave all to God nor for Man to confide too-much in his own Wit and Ability it is better to joyn both together for there is no other Fortune save God and our own Diligence He that invented the Game of Chess left a Model of the Military-Art representing therein all the Steps and Contingences of War without omitting any And in like manner as in this play Fortune has no share nor ought the Winner to be call'd fortunate nor the Loser unfortunate so the Captain who is the Vanquisher should be call'd Wise and the Vanquish'd Ignorant and not the one Fortunate or the other Unfortunate The first Order in the Game was that in mating the King the Game is won to show us that all the strength of an Army lay in the good Head of the Leader or General And to demonstrate that there are allotted as many Men to one as the other to the end whoever is the Loser may be assured he wanted Skill rather than Fortune Which yet appears more plain if we consider that a good Gamester may give half the Men to a worse Gamester and yet for all that get the Game Which is what Vegetius has noted That it often happens that the Few and the Weaker Vanquish the Many and the Stronger if led on by a General well skilled in Ambushes and Stratagems Another Order is that the Pawns are not to move backwards to advise the General duly to forecast all Chances before he sends forth his Soldiers to the Service for if they miscarry 't is better to be cut off upon the Spot than to turn Tayl because the Soldier is not to know when Time is to Fly or Fight save by Direction of his Captain and therefore as long as he lives he is to keep his Post under pain of Disgrace Another Rule is that the Pawn which has made seven Draughts without being taken is made a Queen and may make any Draught at pleasure and takes place next the King as one set at Liberty and made Noble From which we are to understand that it highly imports in War in order to make the Soldiers Valiant to proclaim Donatives free Camps and Preferments due to them that signalize themselves especially if the Advantages and Honour are to descend to their Posterity for then they will behave themselves with greater Courage and Gallantry And so says Aristotle that a Man values more the Greatness of his Family than of himself This Saul well perceived when he caused it to be Proclaimed in his Army what should be done to the Man that kill'd Goliah That the King should enrich him with great Riches and give him his Daughter and make his Fathers House free in Israel Agreeable to this Proclamation there is a Law in Spain which provides that every Soldier who for his good Services deserved to receive Five Hundred Shillings in Pay which was the greatest Stipend allowed in War should himself and his Posterity be ever Tax-free The Moors as they are great players at Chess have in their Pay seven degrees in imitation of the seven draughts the Pawn makes to be a Queen and so they advance the Pay from one to two from two to three up to seven in proportion to the several Steps made by the Soldier in the Field And if he proves so gallant to merit seven pays they are given him which gives occasion to their being called Septenarios Septenary's or Mata-Siete seven times Maters these enjoy as great Privileges and Immunities as Gentlemen do in Spain The Reason of this is very clear in Natural Philosophy for there is no Faculty of all those that govern Man which will willingly Work unless there be some Advantage to move it Which Aristotle proves in the Generative Power and the same reason holds as
Difficulty against this Doctrin namely seeing God knew all the Wits and Ability in Israel and was well aware that the Temperate Men are possessed of that Prudence and Wisdom of which the Royal Office stands in need for what cause in the first Election that was made God sought not out such a Man as this For even the Text says that Saul was so tall of Stature as he exceeded all the people of Israel by the Head and Shoulders This is an ill sign of Wit not only in Natural Philosophy but God himself as he has pleased to shew us blamed Samuel for having an Eye to the great Stature of Eliab and his forwardness to Anoint him for King But this Doubt sufficiently informs us what Galen has said is true that out of Greece it is a folly to look for a Temperate Man seeing in so great a People as that of Israel God could not find one to choose for King but waited till David was grown up and in the mean while made choice of Saul seeing that as the Text says he was the best of all Israel tho' it seems he had more good nature than Wisdom and that alone was not sufficient to Rule and Govern Teach me goodness discipline and Knowledge says the Royal Prophet David being very sensible that it is to no purpose for a King to be Good and Virtuous if he be not withal at the same time Prudent and Wise It looks as if we had sufficiently confirmed our Opinion in this instance of King David but there arose also another King in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is born King of the Jews And if we can prove that he was red-Haired well fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of great Wisdom and Knowledge it will be no disadvantage to our Cause The Evangelists busy not themselves to relate the Composition of our Lord because it no way conduced to the subject they treated of but the same is a matter very easy to be understood supposing that an exact Temperament is all the Perfection a Man can naturally have and seeing it was the Holy Ghost that formed and Organized him it is certain that as touching the material Cause of which he form'd him it was not the Ill Temperament of Nazareth that could resist him nor cause him to erre in his work as it fares with Natural Agents but that he did what best pleased him because he wanted neither Power Knowledge nor Will to frame a Man most Perfect and without any Defect And the rather for that his Coming as he himself affirms was to endure Travels for Man and to teach him the Truth But this Temperament as we have prov'd before was the best Natural Instrument to effect these two things And therefore I hold for true the Relation that Publius Lentulus the Proconsul writ from Jerusalem to the Senate at Rome after this manner There has been seen in our Time a Man who yet lives of great Virtue call'd Jesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the Prophet of Truth and his Disciples say that he is the Son of God He raises the Dead and heals the Sick He is a Man of a middle proportionable Stature and of a very fair Countenance His Look carries such Majesty as procures at once both Love and Respect from all his Beholders His Hair down to his Ears is of the Colour of a Nut full ripe and from his Ears to his Shoulders of the Colour of Wax but brighter He has in the middle of his Forehead a little Lock after the manner of the Nazarens His Forehead is Plain but very Serene His Face without Spot or Wrinkle and of a moderate Colour His Nose and Mouth are not with any reason to be blamed His Beard thick and resembling his Hair not long but forked His Aspect is Gracious and Grave and his Eyes graceful and clear He is Awful in his Reproofs and Charming in his Admonitions He forces Love He is chearful with Gravity He is never seen to Laugh but Weep often He has elegant Hands and Arms In Conversation he is very pleasing but is seldom in Company and when he is very Modest In his Countenance and Mien the loveliest Man that can be imagined In this Relation are comprised three or four Marks of a Temperate Man The first that he had his Hair and Beard of the Colour of a Nut full ripe which if well considered is a brown Abourn which Colour God commanded the Heifer should have that was to be sacrificed in Figure of Jesus Christ And when he Ascended up into Heaven with the Triumph and Majesty due to such a Prince some of the Angels that knew nothing of his Incarnation ask'd Who is this that comes from Edom with his Garments died Red from Bosra As if they had said Who is this that comes from the Red-Land with his Garments died Red with regard to his Hair and Beard and to the Blood he was stained with The Letter also reports him the fairest Man that ever was seen which is the second Mark of a temperate Man Accordingly by this Mark Holy Scripture has distinguish'd him Goodly of Beauty among the Sons of Men and elsewhere it is said That his Eyes shall be Red with Wine and his Teeth White with Milk Which Beauty and Comely Shape of Body was of no small importance to engage the whole World to Love him because there was nothing Terrible about him And so the Letter says That every one was enclined to Love him It reports also That he was of middle Stature not that the Holy Ghost wanted Matter to make him greater if he had so pleased but because in over-charging the Rational Soul with Bones and Flesh the Wit is oppressed as we have prov'd before from the Opinion of Plato and Aristotle The third Mark namely to be Virtuous and of good Conditions is confirmed also from the same Relation and the Jews with all their false Witnesses could never prove the contrary nor answer him when he ask'd them Which of you can reprove me of Sin And Josephus from the credit of his History assures us that he seemed to be more than Man considering his great Goodness and Wisdom There is only long Life that is not verified of our Saviour Jesus Christ because they put him to Death so Young But if the Course of Nature had not been interruptted he might have lived above fourscore Years For it is very probable that he who could live in a Desart fourty Days and fourty Nights without Eating or Drinking and neither be Sick nor Die with it might better have preserv'd himself free from other slighter Accidents that might alter and impair his Temperament Howbeit this Action was reputed a Miracle and a thing that could not happen in the Compass of Nature These two Examples of Kings which we have alledged are sufficient to give to Understand that the Royal Scepter is due
to Temperate Men and that they have the Wit and Wisdom which is required for that Station But there was also another Man made by God's own hand with design that he should be King and Lord of all things Created and he made him also red well-fashioned Virtuous Sound of exceeding long Life and very Wise The Proof of which is no Inconvenience to our Cause Plato held it for a thing impossible for God or Nature to form a Man Temperate in an Intemperate Region and therefore he said that to make the first Man very Wise and Temperate God sought out a place where the Heat of the Air excceeded not the Cold nor the Moist the Dry And Holy Writ whence he drew this Opinion says not that God created Adam in the Terrestrial Paradise which is the most Temperate Place mentioned by Plato but that he plac'd him there after he had made him And the Lord God took the Man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it For as the Power of God is infinite and his Knowledge above measure and his Will inclin'd to give all the Natural Perfection to Man he was capable of in his Kind it is probable that neither the Piece of Earth of which he was fram'd nor the Intemperance of the Country of Damascus where he was created could hinder his coming Temperate out of Gods Hands The Opinion of Plato Aristotle and Galen hath place in the Works of Nature and yet even in Intemperate Regions Nature sometimes chances to produce a Temperate Man Now that Adam had Red Hair and Beard which is the first Mark of a Temperate Man is a thing very clear for in respect of this so notorious a Sign the Name of Adam was given him which is as much as to say as St. Jerom interprets it a red Man Nor can it be deny'd but he was Beautiful and well Fashioned which is the second Mark seeing that after God created him the Text says That he saw every thing which he had made and behold it was very good It is certain then that he issued not out of the Hands of God Foul or ill Shap'd Because all his Works are perfect Insomuch as the Text affirms that the very Trees were fair to Behold What then think you of Adam whom God created for the principal end and to be Lord and Master of the whole World That he was Virtuous Wise and well-Conditioned which are the third and sixth Marks may be collected from these words Let us make Man after our Image and Likeness because according to the Antient Philosophers the foundation of the Resemblance of Man to God was no other than Virtue and Wisdom Which made Plato say that the greatest pleasure God took above in Heaven was to hear a Wise and Virtuous Man praised and admir'd on Earth in as much as such a Man is his most lively Portraiture On the contrary he is displeased when the Foolish and Wicked are in Honour and Esteem because of the Disparity between them and himself That he liv'd Sound and a long while which are the fourth and fifth Marks is not hard to prove seeing that he lived nine hundred and thirty Years compleat So that I may now conclude that he that is Red well-Fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of long Life must necessarily be exceeding Wise and have the Wit requisite for the Royal Scepter We have also by the by made out after what manner a great Understanding may be joyn'd with a large Imagination and Memory tho' this may come to pass without the Man's being Temperate But Nature makes so few after this Model that amongst all the Wits I have examined I have not met above two But how a large Understanding a vast Imagination and a good Memory may meet together in a Man not being Temperate is a thing easy to comprehend if we admit the Opinion of some Physitians who affirm that the Imagination lies in the fore-part of the Brain the Memory in the hinder part and the Understanding in the middle which may also be supposed by our Apprehension but it is a work of great labour that the Brain being no bigger than a Pepper-corn at the time Nature begins to form it should have one of the Ventricles of Seed very Hot another of very Moist and that in the middle of very dry tho' after all this is no Impossible Case CHAP. XVII In what manner Parents may beget wise Children and of a Wit fit for Learning 'T IS a thing worthy of great Admiration that Nature being such as we all know Wise Skilful of great Art Knowledge and Power and Man a Work in which she has shew'd so much skill Nevertheless for one person that is Wise and Prudent she produces an infinite Number of half-Witted Of which effect searching into the reason and Natural Causes I have found at length that the fault lay in Parents not applying themselves to the Act of Generation in that Order and with that Concert which Nature has established not knowing the Conditions which are to be observ'd in the begetting Wise and Prudent Children For by the same Reason that in whatever Country it be either Temperate or Intemperate there is born a Man of great Wit with regard to the same Order of Causes there are a thousand begot of a slender Capacity If we can then by Art procure a Remedy for this there will accrue to the Common-Wealth the greatest Benefit it can receive But the Difficulty of this Matter is that we cannot treat of it in Terms so decent and seemly as becomes that Modesty which is so Natural to Men. And if for this reason I should spare the mention of any Part or Action that is necessary it is certain the whole matter will be marred insomuch as it is the Opinion of many grave Philosophers that wise Men ordinarily beget Blockheads because for Modesties sake they abstain in the act of Copulation from some Caresses which are of importance that the Child partake of the Fathers Wit Of the Natural Modesty conceived in the Eyes when the parts of Generation are exposed to view and of the Offence which their Names give to our Ears some antient Philosopers have attempted to find the Reason being surprized to see that Nature had framed these Parts with such Care and Diligence for a Design so important as that of Immortalizing Mankind and yet nevertheless the Wiser and Prudenter a Man is the more he is ashamed to see them or hear them Named Shame and Modesty as Aristotle says is a Passion proper to the Understanding and whosoever is not offended at hearing the Names of the Parts or Actions of Generation it is certain that he is wholly unprovided of this Faculty as we may declare him to be void of the Sense of Feeling that should not feel his Hand burn tho' he held it in the midst of the Fire By this very Token
Flesh shew also the Degrees of these two Qualities Great Moisture makes the Flesh soft and smooth and little renders it harsh and hard and the Mean gives the true Temper The Colour of the Face and of the other parts of the Body betoken also more or less the degrees of these two Qualities When a Woman is very White Galen says it is a Sign of much Cold and Moisture and on the contrary she that is Tawny and Swarthy is cold and moist in the first Degree of which two Extreams arises the second Degree and is known by an Union of White and Red. To have much Hair and little of a Beard is an evident Sign to discover the first DeDegree of Cold and Moisture for to know whence the Hair and Beard proceed all the Physitians affirm them to come from Heat and Dryness and if they are Black that denotes abundance of Heat and Dryness The contrary Temperament is betokened when a Woman is very smooth without Down or Hair She that is cold and moist in the se cond Degree has some Hair but the same is Red or Flaxen Fairness and Foulness serve also to distinguish the Degrees of Cold and Moist in a Woman In the first Degree it is a Marvel if a Woman prove fair for the Seed whereof she was form'd being Dry hindred her from being fair The Clay must be moist for the Potter to frame well Vessels for use for if it be Hard and Dry the Vessels will be foul and ill figured Aristotle affirms further that overmuch Cold and Moist makes Women by Nature foul for if the Seed be Cold and very Waterish it takes no good Figure because it wants consistence as we see of Clay over-soft ugly and ill-shaped Vessels are fashioned In the second Degree of Cold and Moist the Woman is very fair because the matter is well-seasoned and pliant to Nature which Sign alone is a clear proof of a Woman's Fruitfulness it being a certainty that Nature has hit well and done her Part. It is then to be received that she has given her the Temperament and necessary Composition to have Children so that she 'l be fit for any Man and desireable to all There is no Faculty in Man that carries not some signs or tokens to discover the Goodness or Malignity of its Object The Stomach is led to discern the quality of the Food by the Tast the Smell and the Sight Whereupon the Holy Text said that Eve saw that the forbidden Fruit was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eye The generative Faculty holds for a Sign of fruitfulness a Womans Beauty and if she be ugly abhors her conceiving by this Sign that Nature made a false step and gave her not a fit Temperament for bearing Children Article I. By what Marks the Degrees of Heat and Dryness are to be discovered in each Man MAN hath not his Temperament so limited as Woman For he may be hot and dry which Temperament Aristotle and Galen are of Opinion is that which best agrees with his Sex as also hot and moist and temperate but cold and moist and cold and dry will not be admitted so long as the Man is in Health and not some way amiss so that for the same reason as there is no Woman hot and dry nor hot and moist nor temperate even so there is no Man cold and moist nor cold and dry in comparison of Women unless in a Case as I shall presently shew A Man hot and dry or hot and moist or temperate has as many Degrees in his Temperament as a Woman has of Cold and Moist insomuch that we have need of Tokens to discern what Man is in what Degree to assign him a Wife answerable to him in Proportion You are to know then that from the Principles from which we have collected the Woman's Temperament and her Degrees of Cold and Moist the same we shall make use of to know which Man is Hot and Dry and in what Degree And because we said that from the Wit and Manners of a Man the Temperament of the Testicles may be conjectured we must take notice of an observable Point mentioned by Galen namely to make us understand the great Virtue in the Testicles of Man to give Solidity and Temperament to all the Parts of the Body he affirms that they are of more Importance than the Heart for which he renders this Reason that the Heart is the Principle of Life and no more but the Genitals are the Principles of living well and without Infirmities What damage it is to Man to be deprived of those Parts though small there need not many Reasons to prove seeing we see by Experience that forthwith the Hair and the Beard fall off that his gross and strong Voice grows shril and with these he loses his Vigor and Natural Heat and remains in a far worse and more miserable Condition than if he had been a Woman But what is most observable is that if a Man before castrating had much Wit and Ability from the time he loses his Testicles he loses it all even as if he had received in the Brain some considerable Hurt Which evidently shews that the Genitals both give and take away Temperament from all parts of the Body If it be otherwise let us consider as I have often done that of a thousand Eunuchs that apply themselves to Learning not one succeeds in it and even in Music which is their ordinary Profession we see plainly how blockish they are and the reason of it is that Music is a work of the Imagination which power requires much Heat whereas they are cold and moist It is certain then that from the Wit and Ability we may conjecture the Temperament of the Testicles For which cause the Man that appears towardly in the works of the Imagination will be hot and dry in the third Degree And if a Man be not very Deep it is a Sign that Heat is joyned with much Moisture which ever destroys the Rational part and this is the more confirmed if the Man have a great Memory The ordinary Conditions of Men Hot and Dry in the third Degree are Courage Pride Liberality Audacity Chearfulness and Pleasantness and in what relates to Women they observe no rule or moderation The Men who are hot and moist are Pleasant Merry fond of Diversions fair Conditioned Affable Modest and not much given to Women The Voice and Speech discovers much the Temperament of the Testicles That which is strong and somewhat harsh shews the Man hot and dry in the third Degree but that which is soft amorous and very delicate is a Sign of little Heat and much Moisture as appears in Eunuchs The Man in whom Heat is joyned with Moisture will have a strong Voice yet tunable and loud He that is hot and dry in the third Degree has little Flesh and the same is hard and rough full of Sinews and Arteries and
sowed in a Lake Hippocrates advises such a Woman to lessen her self and take down her Fat and her Flesh before she Marry but then she need not take a Husband hot and dry for such a Temperament would not do nor can she conceive A Woman cold and moist in the second Degree retains a Mean in all the Marks we have mentioned Beauty excepted which she has in excess which is an evident Sign that she will be fruitful and bear Children and prove gay and of a good Grace Such a Woman answers in proportion well near to all Men first to the hot and dry in the second Degree next to the Temperate and then to those that are hot and moist Of all these Combinations and Matches of Men and Women which we have noted wise Children may proceed but more ordinarily from the first for put case that the Man's Seed incline to cold and moist yet the continual Dryness of the Mother and giving her little nourishment corrects and amends the defect of the Father Because this kind of Philosophy has not yet come to light all the natural Philosophers have not been able to answer the Problem that demands Why many Fools have got wise Children To which they Answer That those unthinking Fellows apply themselves passionately to the Venereal Act without engaging in any other consideration but that wise Men on the contrary in the very Embraces are musing upon Matters impertinent to the present Point Whereby they enfeeble their Seed and beget defective Children as well in what respects the rational Powers as in those that are purely Natural But this Answer proceeds from People little skill'd in natural Philosophy In the other Unions care should be taken that the Woman lose her Fat and grow sparer by a ripe Age and Marry not too young for thence arise half Witted and Foolish Children The Seed of young Parents is very moist for it is but a while since they were Born and if a Man be formed of Matter moist in Excess he will of course be a Blockhead Article III. What Considerations to be used to get Boys and not Girls THE Parents that are in quest of the Joy of Wise Children and towardly for Learning should endeavour to have Boys for Girls in respect of the Coldness and Moisture of their Sex can never arrive at a profound Judgment Ony we see they speak with a show of Ability in slight and easy Matters with ordinary Terms though studied But being set to Learning they learn no farther than a little Latin and that because it is a work of the Memory Which Incapacity is not to be charged on them but on the Cold and Moist that made them Women being the Qualities as we have already proved absolutely contrary to Wit and Ability Solomon in Consideration of the great Scarcity of wise Men and that there was not so much as one Woman furnished with Wit and Knowledge speaks thus One Man says he among a Thousand have I found but a Woman among all those have I not found Therefore we are to shun them and apply our Endeavours to get Males since in these alone appears a Wit capable of Learning In which we are first of all to consider what Instruments are ordained by Nature in Man's Body to this End and what Order of Causes is to be observ'd to attain the End we propose You are to know then that amongst many Excrements and Humours that are in a Man's Body Galen says that Nature makes use but of One to prevent the Species of Men being lost Which is a certain Excrement called Serum or Serous Blood generated in the Liver and Veins at the Instant the four Humours Blood Flegm Choler and Melancholy receive what Form and Substance they ought to have Of such a Juice as this Nature makes use for a Vehicle of Food and to transmit it thro' the Veins and narrow Passages to carry Nourishment to all Parts of the Body which Work being done the same Nature has given to us two Reins which have no other Office than to attract to themselves this Serous Humour and make it descend thro' their Passages down into the Bladder and thence out of the Body and this to free Man from the Anoyance that Excrements give him But in Consideration of certain Qualities he has convenient for Generation she has provided us with two Veins to carry part to the Testicles and Spermatic Vessels with a little Blood whence she frames the Seed such as is convenient for our Species accordingly she has planted one Vein on the Right Rein side which terminates in the Rim of the right Testicle and of that same the right Spermatic Vessel is framed The other Vein issues out of the left Rein and terminates in the left Testicle and of that is framed the left Spermatic Vein What Qualities this Excrement has to make convenient Matter for generating of Seed the same Galen has noted that they are certain Acrids and Acids that spring from a Salt which irritates the Spermatic Vessels and strongly moves the Animal without delay to the Work of Generation and therefore lascivious Men are termed in Latin Salaces as much as to say Men that have much Salt in their Seed Besides this Nature has done another thing worthy of Consideration namely that to the right Vein and Testicle she has given much Heat and Dryness and to the left Rein and Testicle much Cold and Moisture so that the Seed prepared by the right Testicle is very hot and dry and that by the left cold and moist What Nature pretends to in this Diversity of Temperaments as well in the Reins as Testicles and Spermatic Vessels is very clear since we are informed by very credible Histories that at the beginning of the World and many Years after the Women were brought to Bed of two Children at a Birth one a Boy and the other a Girl to the end that each Man might have a Wife and each Woman a Husband for the speedier Encrease of Mankind For this Reason then has Nature provided that the right Rein should furnish matter hot and dry to the right Testicle and that the same with its great Heat and Dryness might produce hot and dry Seed for the generating a Male. And the contrary she has ordered for the Formation of the Female that the left Rein should send forth cold and moist Seed to the left Testicle that the same with its Coldness and Moisture might make cold and moist Seed from which a Girl would necessarily be got and not a Boy But after the World was once well Peopled it seems as if Nature had broke off this Order of this double Child-bearing and what is worse for one Boy there are no less than six or seven Girls ordinarily Born from which it may be understood either that Nature is tired out or that some Errour hinders her from acting as she would What the same is we may hereafter declare when we
by the Woman else her Seed being ill tempered impedes Generation Therefore it is convenient that they should both wait that both their Seeds may meet and mingle Which is of great importance for the first Effort because the right Testicle and it's Spermatic Vessel in the Opinion of Galen is that which first provokes and emits it's Seed sooner than the Left and if the Generation be not the first Time it is odds the second may give a Girl and not a Boy These two Seeds are known First by the Heat and Cold Secondly by the great or little Quantity Thirdly in this that one issues readier than to'ther The Seed of the right Testicle passes very tickling and is so Hot that it burns the Woman's Matrix is not much in Quantity and passes in hast On the contrary the Seed of the left Testicle is more temperate in greater Quantity and longer in Issuing being Cold and Thick The last Condition was to procure that the Seed of both should fall on the right side of the Matrix because in that place says Hippocrates the Males are form'd as the Females on the left Galen assigns the Reason hereof saying that the right side of the Matrix is very hot because of its neighbourhood to the Liver Reigns and spermatic Vessels that are on the right side which parts we have affirmed and prov'd to be very hot And since all the reason to order that a Boy may be begot consists in this that it have a great deal of heat in the time of its conception it is certain it much imports that the Seed fall in this place Which the Woman can easily do lying upon her right side after her Husbands embraces with her Head low and her Feet raised But she must keep her Bed a day or two because the Matrix embraces not the Seed but after some time The Signs of knowing whether a Woman be with Child or no are clear and manifest to all for if when she stands up the Seed fall presently down Galen says she has not conceived Therefore in this there is one thing to be considered that all the Seed is not fruitful and prolific for part thereof is waterish whose office is to dilute the principal Seed that it may pierce the narrow Passages And this is that which Nature emits and it remains after conception with the prolific part It is known when it is like Water and in little quantity To stand upon her Legs immediately after Coupling is very dangerous And therefore Aristotle advises that she beforehand evacuate her Excrements and Urine that she may have no need to Rise The second Mark to discover if a Woman be with Child is if the day after she feels her Belly empty and especially about the Navel And the Reason of it is that when the Matrix will conceive it stretches and extends extremely because in a manner it is apt to swell and stiffen upon this Occasion after the same fashion as a Mans Yard and stretching out after this manner it takes up more room but at the instant it conceives Hippocrates says that it closes and draws into the form of a little Egg to draw the Seed to it and let nothing out by which means it leaves a great Vacuity Which the Women explain saying that they have no slack Guts left soon after they grow big Besides which they forthwith nauseate their Husbands Caresses the Womb having what it wanted But the most certain Sign as Hippocrates says is when the Menses cease their Brests swell and they loath their Meat Article IV. What is to be observed that the Children may prove Witty and Wise IF the Reason and Cause be not known beforehand whence it proceeds that a Man of great Wit and Capacity is begotten it is impossible to reduce the same to an Art since we attain the End by no other Means but by connecting and ordering the Principles and Causes The Astrologers hold that the Child being born under such an Influence of the Stars will be Wise Witty Well or Ill-condition'd happy or unhappy with a thousand other qualities and properties which we see and observe every day among Men. But if this were true we could not here prescribe any Rules for all would depend upon Chance and not be in our Choice The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen were of Opinon that a Man receives the conditions of his Soul at the time of his Formation and not of his Birth The Stars only causing a superficial Alteration in the Babe communicating to to him Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and not his Substance whereon his Life depends as do the four Elements Fire Earth Air Water which not only add to the Composition heat cold moisture dryness but also a substance that unites and preserves these Qualities during the course of Life So that what is of greatest Importance in begetting Children is to endeavour that the Elements from which they are formed should have the Qualities requisite to Wit because that in the same Weight and Measure the Elements enter into the Composition in the same they remain for ever in the Mixture which is not so in the Mutations and Influences of Heaven What these Elements are and after what manner they enter the Woman's Womb to form the Child Galen tells when he teaches us that they are the same which compound all other natural things but that the Earth is concealed in the solid Meats we Eat such as Bread Flesh Fish and Fruits the Water under the Liquors we Drink and for the Air and Fire he says that they are mingled by order of Nature and enter into the Body by way of the Pulse and Respiration Of these four Elements mingled and digested by our Natural Heat are made the two necessary Principles of the Infants Generation which are the Seed and the Menstruous Blood But that whereof we make the greatest Account for the Mark we aim at are the solid Meats that are Eaten For they include within themselves all the four Elements and from them the Seed draws more Corpulence and Quality than from the Water which we drink or the Fire and Air which we breath Wherefore Galen says that the Parents who would beget wise Children should read the three Books he writ Of the Properties of Aliments for there they should find the Meats by which they should effect the same He makes no mention at all of Water nor of the other Elements as matters of small Consequence But he had no Reason for this for Water alters the Body much more than the Air and no less than the solid Meats we use and as to what regards the Generation of the Seed the Water alone is of as great Importance as all the other Elements together The reason of it is as the same Galen says that the Testicles draw from the Veins for their Nourishment the serous portion of Blood and the greatest part of this
Kingdom that the King should have a lawful Issue to Succeed him so it may well happen that a King marrying at random may light on a barren Wife that will keep him all his Life without hope of Issue and so dying without Heirs he bequeaths to his People Civil Wars for filling of a Vacant Throne But this Art says Hippocrates is not necessary but for Men of ill Constitutions and not for those that have the perfect Temperament we have described These need no special Choice of a Wife nor look for one that is proportionable to them for as Galen says whatever Wife they Marry they will not fail forthwith to have Children This is to be understood if the Woman be Sound and at the Age according to the Course of Nature that Women are wont to Conceive and bring forth In such sort as Fruitfulness is more to be desired by a King than any Artist whatsoever for the reasons we have given If the Nutritive Faculty be so voracious gluttonous and greedy of Drink Galen has told us that it proceeds from the Stomach and the Liver 's wanting the Temperament agreeable to their Operations Which makes Men Voluptuous Infirm and of very short Life But if these Parts possess their due Temper and Composition the same Galen says that they desire no more Meat nor Drink than is necessary to sustain Life Which quality is so important to a King that God declares that Land thrice happy that meets with such a Prince Blessed is the Land whose King is Noble and whose Princes feed in due time for Refreshment and not for Riotousness Of the Irascible Faculty if it be Intense or Remiss Galen pronounces it is an Indicatition that the Heart is not well composed and has not the Temperament required to act perfectly from which two Extreams the King ought to be further distant than any other Artist for to arm Passion with Power is a thing in no wise convenient for the Subjects Nor is it any better for the King to have that Irascible Faculty remiss because in slightly passing by things ill done and attempted in this Kingdom he comes to be Despised and lose the Reverence of his Subjects which ordinarily produces great Disorders in a State and remediless Mischiefs But the Man who is Temperate is moved when there is Reason and unmoved when there is None which quality is as necessary for a King as all the other we have spoke of How much it imports that the Rational Faculty the Imagination Memory and Understanding should be perfect in a King more than in any other is easily prov'd for the other Arts and Sciences as it should seem are to be acquired and practised by the force of Man's Wit but to govern a Kingdom and to conserve it in Peace and Concord not only requires that the King be endued with natural Prudence for it but it is also necessary that God particularly assist him with Understanding and Aid him in Governing the Sacred Scripture has noted no less where it says That the Heart of the King is in the Hand of God To live many Years also and enjoy continual Health is a property more convenient for a good King than any other Artist for his Care and Travel is laid out for the Public Good and if he fails to hold out in Health the Common-Wealth runs to Decay All this Doctrin which we have deliver'd will be better confirm'd if we find in any true History that at any time there has been any distinguishable Man chosen for King in whom were not wanting any of the Marks and qualifications we have mentioned For Truth has this Advantage that it never wants a Proof Holy Writ recounts that God being displeas'd with Saul for sparing Agag's life ordered Samuel to go to Bethlem and anoint for King of Israel one of the Eight Sons of Jesse Now the holy Man presuming that God would be pleased with Eliab because he was tall of Stature said Surely the Lord 's Anointed is before him But the Lord said to Samuel Look not on his Countenance or on the height of his Stature for I have refused him for this he had tryed before in Saul for the Lord sees not as Man seees for Man looketh on the outward Appearance but the Lord looketh on the Heart Samuel distrusting his own skill in choosing passed on further to what he had in Charge still enquiring of God of one and the other before him which he would please to have anointed King and God approving of none of them said he to Jesse it may be thou hast more Children than these that stand before us and Jesse said there remaineth yet the Youngest and behold he keepeth the Sheep but he is little of Stature imagining belike that that was no small matter in a King Samuel who had already learned by Experience that a great Stature was not always a good Presage sent for him And it is a thing worthy Observation what Sacred Scripture recounts e're yet he was anointed King Now he was Ruddy and withal of a Beautiful Countenance and goodly to look to and the Lord said Arise and anoint him for this is he So as David had the two first Marks we have laid down he was Ruddy well-Complectioned and of mean Stature That he was Virtuous and good Conditioned which is our third Sign is easie to be found seeing God said of him That he had found a Man after his own Heart For tho' he sometimes Sinned he lost neither the Name nor Habit of Virtuous no more than he that is Habitually Evil tho' he perform some good Moral Actions loses the Name of Lewd and Vitious That he liv'd in Health during the whole Course of his Life seems to be proved from this because throughout his whole Story there is no mention but of one only Infirmity which is an Indisposition attending them that live a long time it was that his natural Heat was extinguish'd and he could not be warm in his Bed to remedy which there was put to Bed to him a young Damsel to cherish him by which means he liv'd so many Years that the sacred Text says That he died in a good old Age full of Days Riches and Honour after having endured so many Travels and Wars and done so great Penance for his Sins And all this because he was Temperate and of good Constitution and avoided the Occasions that ordinarily breed Diseases and shorten Man's Life His great Wisdom and Knowledge were noted by Saul's Servant when he said Behold I have seen the Son of Jesse the Bethlemite that is cunning in playing and a mighty Valiant Man and a Man of War and prudent in Matters and a comely Man By which Signs above recited it is certain that David was a Temperate Man and that it is to such the Royal Scepter is due seeing he was adorn'd with the best Wit Nature could produce But here arises a great